Postgraduate Master's Loan

Full-time: available
Part-time: available
Prospective PG students (inc. current UG): available
Current PG students: not available
Entry year: 2018/19

Undergraduate: not available
Postgraduate taught: available
Postgraduate research: not available

About the loan

A Postgraduate Master's Loan is funding from Student Finance to help with your course and living costs whilst studying a postgraduate Master’s level course. It’s paid directly to you, and isn’t based on your income or the income of your household.

A Postgraduate Master’s Loan may affect any benefits you currently get.

You will be due to start repaying your loan the April after you finish or leave their course. Interest is charged on the loan from the day the first payment is made until it is paid off in full or canceled.

Eligibility criteria

To apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan you must:

be a UK or EU national or have settled status (this means you have no restrictions on how long you can stay in the UK)

normally live in England

have been living in the UK for at least three years before the first day of the first academic year of your course

If you're an EU national and have been living in the EEA or Switzerland for at least three years before the start of your course, you'll also be able to apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.

You may also be able to apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan if you are:

a member of the Armed Forces, or a relative of someone in the Armed Forces and studying on a distance learning course at a UK university whilst you're posted abroad,

a refugee, or a relative of one,

under Humanitarian Protection, or a relative of someone under Humanitarian Protection,

18 or over and have lived in the UK for at least 20 years or at least half yourlife,

an EEA or Swiss migrant worker, or a relative of one,

the child of a Swiss national, or

the child of a Turkish worker.

Age

You must be under 60 on the first day of the first academic year of your course to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.

Previous study

If you have a loan from a previous undergraduate course, it won’t affect your eligibility for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.

You can only get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan if you don’t already have an equivalent Master’s qualification or a higher-level qualification such as a PhD.

MAs from Scottish universities, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge or Trinity College Dublin are at a lower level than a postgraduate Master’s qualification. If you have an MA from one of these universities, you may be able to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.

If you take a Postgraduate Master’s Loan for a course but don’t complete it, you won’t be able to get a second Postgraduate Master’s Loan. However, if you have to withdraw from their course for compelling personal reasons, such as illness, you may still be able to apply for another Postgraduate Loan.

Course eligibility

The course you're studying must be in the UK and be a full postgraduate Master’s course of at least 180 credits leading to a qualification such as:

Master of Science (MSc)

Master of Art (MA)

Master of Philosophy (MPhil)

Master of Research (MRes)

Master of Law (LLM)

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

A Postgraduate Master’s Loan is not available to students wanting to ‘top up’ a lower-level qualification to a Master’s degree. The course must be a full standalone master’s course.

You can’t get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan for certain postgraduate courses, such as PgCert (Postgraduate Certificate), PgDip (Postgraduate Diploma), or where the postgraduate course is funded by undergraduate student finance, such as:

Integrated Master’s

Your course can be studying at the university in person or by distance learning, and your course can be:

a full-time course lasting one or two academic years,

a part-time course lasting two academic years that has a one year full-time equivalent,

a part-time course lasting three or four academic years that has a two year full-time equivalent, or

a part-time course lasting up to three years that has no full-time equivalent.

Any student who started a course in academic year 2016/17 then transferred to a university from academic year 2017/18 which doesn’t have degree awarding powers, will remain eligible for the Postgraduate Master's Loan.

Eligible countries

Anguilla

Austria

Belgium

Bermuda

British Antarctic Territories

British Indian Ocean Territory

British Virgin Islands

Bulgaria

Cayman Islands

Croatia

Cyprus (European Union)

Czech Republic

Denmark

England

Estonia

Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

Finland

France

French Guiana

Germany

Gibraltar

Greece

Hungary

Ireland, the Republic of

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Martinique

Mayotte (French Territorial Collectivity)

Montserrat

Netherlands

Northern Ireland

Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oenno Islands

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Scotland

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

Sweden

Turks & Caicos Islands

Wales

Payment amount & frequency

You can borrow up to £10,609 for your postgraduate course.

The total amount you borrow will be paid evenly over the length of your course.

For example, if you apply for the maximum amount of Postgraduate Master’s Loan and study over four years, you'll get £2,652 in each year of your course.

Payments are made directly to the student after your course start date, once the University of Bradford confirms that you have registered.

You must have a UK bank or building society account in your own name.

The loan will be split equally and be paid in three instalments each academic year.

Your entitlement letter will tell you how much you'll get and when you should expect each payment. You can also view their payment dates on their online Student Finance account.

If you leave yourMaster's course early, Student Finance will stop any future payments.

Repayment

A Postgraduate Master's Loan has to be repaid and interest will be charged from the day the first payment is made to the student. Interest will be charged at the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 3%. RPI is a measure of UK inflation and measures changes to the cost of living in the UK.

You'll be due to start making repayments the April after you finish or leave your course. You will only start repaying when your income is over £21,000 per year.

How to apply

You only need to apply once for the Postgraduate Master's Loan as the application and funding is for the whole of your course. If you're studying over two or more academic years, you'll get a letter before the beginning of each year confirming your payments for the upcoming academic year.

You should apply as soon as possible so your money is ready in time for the start of your course.

Application deadline

You must apply no more than nine months after the first day of the first academic year of your course if you're studying a one-year course. Or, if your course is longer than one year, no more than nine months after the first day of the second year of your course.